1504174-blackrock-industries

There’s been one topic of discussion in Canberra this week, jobs jobs and more jobs.

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 06:27:26 GMT

The federal government kicked off a two day Jobs and Skills summit at Parliament House yesterday, and there has been plenty of interest from the Hunter region.

Founder and managing director of Blackrock Industries, based in Muswellbrook, Steve Fordham is at the summit and spoke more to Amelia Bernasconi.

Source: https://www.abc.net.au/upperhunter/programs/breakfast/steve-fordham-jobs-summit/101399360

Media link for the Financial Review: https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/how-prisoners-could-fix-the-labour-shortage-20220831-p5be8h

The resources sector underpins indigenous business.

Wed, 18 May 2022 07:42:21 GMT

Blackrock Industries are experienced mining contractors, providing comprehensive mining services to clients across New South Wales (NSW) and in other states.

Founded in Muswellbrook, NSW, by Steve Fordham, Blackrock Industries began as a labour hire company with one truck and two workers. Now Blackrock Industries is situated in 17 locations across Australia and employs more than 100 people, including 20 rehabilitated inmates and a 75 per cent Indigenous workforce. Blackrock Industries is creating opportunities for Indigenous Australians and women. The business creates solutions that both serve society and work alongside local communities as they grow and develop.

In its first 18 months, the company grew rapidly, providing mining services to the resources sector. With a small but highly skilled team of mining professionals, engineers and other specialists, Blackrock Industries focuses on working with clients to improve Indigenous workplace and economic participation. Blackrock Industries quickly became a sustainable and profitable company, grossing $2 million in their first 12 months, and another $2.4 million in the following six months.

Steve Fordham strives to balance his business ambitions with his strong inclusive values and roots as a Kamilaroi man. He is committed to creating positive solutions for communities and the environment, including to create jobs and drive regional economies. As a member of the Wanaruah Local Aboriginal Land Council Board, Steve recognises that Muswellbrook has the highest Aboriginal population in the Hunter Valley and is working towards creating employment for the majority of the population.

“We aim to create solutions which serve society, and which work alongside local communities as they grow and develop. For this to be possible, our teams must adopt environmentally responsible attitudes to the work they complete, operating within strict best practices as they administer mining services across Australia.”

Steve Fordham—Founder, Blackrock Industries

Indigenous jobs program aims to upskill the incarcerated.

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 05:50:33 GMT

Second Chance for Change founder Steven Fordham discusses the purpose of his program – which aims to work with the NSW prison system to give employment opportunities to incarcerated Indigenous men.

”We’ve been running the program for the last couple of years – essentially it’s a work-release program, so the guys get to come out during a day, work in a mine site, get the opportunity for employment,” he told Sky News host Chris Kenny.

“To me a lot of people sort of look at prison as a punishment – but to me it’s all about rehabilitation.

Mr Fordham also said most inmates could show future employers they’ve acquired tools, skills, and experience over the “last couple of years” that shows they have prospects and a means to go forward in life.

“Essentially what we do is we give them those tools, so when they go and look for future employment, instead of going in and going ‘well what have you done for the last couple of years’ – they can say ‘I’ve been working for this company… I’ve got a job opportunity, I’ve got a way to progress and I’ve got a way to go forward.”

Indigenous jobs program driving real lasting change in community.

Fri, 04 Dec 2020 07:32:47 GMT

Steven Fordham’s Blackrock Industries fosters Aboriginal employment in local industries

The central paradox of indigenous advancement in Australia and in closing many of the economic, demographic and health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is that meaningful participation in the economy is crucial — but for many Indigenous Australians, the resources industry is the biggest (if not the only) part of the economy that exists where they live.

While that is more pronounced in, say, the iron-ore industry and other metals-mining sectors, the coal industry is picking up speed in its efforts to emulate that lead.

“We look at the kind of numbers that come out of Fortescue Metals Group, and that is the crown jewel of what should be happening,” says Steven Fordham, co-founder and chief executive of Blackrock Industries, an Indigenous-owned and operated business that specialises in earthworks, mine rehabilitation, demolition, fencing, construction, cleaning and labour-hire services for the coalmining industry in the Hunter Valley. Across his organisation he has 300 employees, about 200 of whom are Indigenous.

Fordham says numbers such as Fortescue’s — 15 per cent Aboriginal employment across its Pilbara operations; $2.5bn in work contracts awarded to Aboriginal-run businesses and joint ventures; and more than 900 Aboriginal graduates of the company’s Vocational Training and Employment Centre (VTEC) program employed — constitute “real and lasting change” in Indigenous lives.

“It’s real change, and it’s change that governments can’t achieve,” Fordham says.

“Fortescue doesn’t give people a fish; it teaches people how to fish. I’ve always said, if you want to ‘fix the gap’, give us the opportunities and we’ll do it ourselves. The big thing about Aboriginal enterprise is that we employ Aboriginal people.”

The 29-year-old Kamilaroi man co-founded Blackrock Industries with an aim of fostering Aboriginal employment in the local mining, construction and industrial-supply industries, managing the employment life cycle from recruitment and training through to employment and mentoring — and in many cases, creating the jobs from scratch.

From the start, the coalmining industry was the logical place to look for work. In 2016, the 25-year-old Fordham and his partner turned up at MACH Energy’s Mount Pleasant open-cut thermal coal mine — construction of which was just starting — with an old tipper and $20,000 in the bank, and asked if there were any tasks they could do. Luckily, the mine needed a fence built, and Blackrock Industries was on its way.

Fordham has since partnered with the St Heliers Correctional Centre in his home town of Muswellbrook, establishing the Second Chance for Change (SCFC) Project, which aims to provide Indigenous incarcerated men the opportunity to engage in long-term, stable employment opportunities, which he believes will help with reducing recidivism rates.

Eligible participants are offered both pre- and post-employment training and mentoring, and begin work a year or so before their sentences expire, on day release.

Again, the coalmining strength of the area made it the logical first call. MACH Energy at Mount Pleasant, and BHP’s open-cut Mt Arthur thermal coal mine — the largest individual coal production site in the Hunter Valley — agreed to trial the concept. Sixty inmates have now gone through SCFC — 55 of them Indigenous — and only one has returned to prison.

Mt Arthur thermal coal open-cut mine in Muswellbrook, in the Hunter Valley

“The absolute basis of it is finding them meaningful work, to start the process of rebuilding their lives,” Fordham says.

“The stigma associated with past mistakes and incarceration, even for low-grade sentences and crimes, often excludes ex-prisoners from getting on with their lives.

“For many of these guys, gaining meaningful employment post-release is the key to them gaining economic independence, a sense of place in the local community and breaking the cycle of reoffending.

“Mining is perfect for this task,” he says.

“The biggest thing about mining is that safety is the number one, two and three consideration, so drugs and alcohol are not tolerated. My guys have no chance of that, because they are being random-tested so often in jail.

“The second biggest thing is that the mining industry isn’t as hard as what a lot of people make it out to be, especially for opportunities driving trucks. It’s a couple of weeks, and you get the hang of it; a couple of months, and then you’re qualified.

“And then you’re not getting paid $70,000 a year as a token to sit there, you’re actually part of the team, you’re in the operation. Our SCFC candidates know that.”

Fordham says some of the SCFC participants leave jail with savings of $50,000 or more, or have rebuilt family lives by channelling all of their pay to their wives or partners — but they leave with something even more important.

“They’ve regained their self-respect — and in most cases, they have an ongoing job,” he adds.

“And that’s the difference that we provide. It’s not easy — with some of them we have to work with them every day, because their old life was the only one they knew for a long time.”

Fordham says his short-term goal is to rehabilitate 100 Indigenous inmates in the Muswellbrook area by 2022, in turn strengthening the community by reducing reoffending, and increasing community engagement.

Longer-term, with Federal Government support, he hopes to do the same thing across Australia.

Ferdian Purnamasidi, managing director at MACH Energy, says Fordham’s initial enthusiasm and passion to ensure local Aboriginal people had the same chance as everyone else when it came to securing work opportunities has never faulted.

“Steven’s regular visits to site are packed with as much, if not more, eagerness and devotion to his cause than his first day building a fence,” Purnamasidi says. “We’re proud to be able to work with him and his team, and we’ll continue to support Blackrock and other local Aboriginal organisations.

“This commitment is easy to make when we know that Steven is employing locals, using a buy-local strategy and works tirelessly to strengthen the Muswellbrook community in which he lives and works.”

‘All we want is to have the opportunity to progress, make money, be able to build, strengthen ourselves and give ourselves real hope — and the mines do that’

— Steven Fordham, co-founder and CEO, Blackrock Industries

While the coal industry is behind its iron-ore, gold and metals counterparts, Fordham says it is rapidly improving. It has adopted the Business Council of Australia’s Raising the Bar initiative, under which companies pledged to hit a target of 3 per cent of procurement spending on Indigenous suppliers within five years.

“The industry can do better, and I think they’re a bit embarrassed by the likes of Fortescue’s efforts, but companies are starting to go above and beyond,” Fordham says.

“They’re starting to think in terms of mandatory Indigenous targets on their contracts, and more companies are thinking like MACH, which is putting a fortune back into the community every year through its Aboriginal Community Development Fund (ACDF), investing into health and measurement and entrepreneurship. Companies are aware that it’s an essential part of their social licence to operate, and beyond that, it’s the right thing to do as a part of the community they operate in.”

Certainly, the big producers are starting to act. Whitehaven Coal says that 9 per cent of its workforce identifies as Indigenous, and starting with employment and procurement — $3.2m spent with nine Indigenous suppliers in FY20 — it is supporting its local communities through “intergenerational forms of support” such as family support, healthcare, education and training, and cultural awareness training for its employees,

Glencore Coal and Indigenous-owned business Diversified Building Services (DBS) have partnered to expand an Indigenous employment pathways program in central Queensland. The program, which started in February, aims to provide employment opportunities for an initial group of 20 Indigenous Australians with connections to the land close to several Glencore coal operations.

At BHP Mitsui Coal’s Poitrel operation in Queensland, a partnership with labour hire services provider Mickala Mining has employed 43 Indigenous workers (more than 70 per cent of them female) in three years.

The pilot program has lifted BMC Poitrel’s Indigenous workforce more than sixfold, from 1.8 per cent to 11.6 per cent, well ahead of BHP’s target for Indigenous employment across its Australian operations of 5.75 per cent of its total workforce by the end of 2020.

“I think the industry is really pushing hard now, to get to where it should be,” Fordham says.

“There’s some really good leaders. There’s Malabar Coal, which hasn’t opened yet (it is proposing turning the old Drayton South open-cut coal mine in NSW into an underground mine that would recover 148 million tonnes of run-of-mine coal over a period of 26 years, and inject $509m in capital investment value into the economy), they’ve been giving work and opportunities for us as well.

“It’s not just employment, it’s procurement and contracts with supplier businesses that are Indigenous-owned, and community support through healthcare and education and sponsorship,” Fordham says.

“At the end of the day, the mines are on Indigenous land, we want to live in our countries, live in our areas, and provide our people with opportunities for progression.

“All we want is to have the opportunity to progress, make money, be able to build, strengthen ourselves and give ourselves real hope — and the mines do that. There’s an obligation, and there’s targets, and we want to work with them as much as we can.”

Steve Fordham Blackrock industries on NAIDOC week.

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 08:53:33 GMT

Congratulations Steve Fordham.

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 08:31:29 GMT

Congratulations Steve Fordham from Blackrock Industries on being the recipient of the 2020 Channel 7

Muswellbrook businessman steve fordham a finalist in 2020 Nsw/Act young achiever of the year awards.

Wed, 15 Jan 2020 05:49:29 GMT

Providing opportunities for indigenous community

MUSWELLBROOK businessman Steve Fordham is one step closer to claiming a major honour at the 7NEWS Young Achiever Awards.

The 28-year-old was recently named as a finalist in the prestigious category, the TransGrid Indigenous Achievement Award, which will be announced at a Gala Presentation Dinner on Friday, March 20.

Organisers received hundreds of nominations from, and on behalf of, amazing individuals under the age of 29 from New South Wales and the ACT.

Candidates were sought in the following sections: First National Real Estate Leadership, Aboriginal Education Council Aboriginal Education, NSW Department of Education Early Childhood Educator, QPRC Performing Arts, Freemasons of NSW/ACT Community Service, TransGrid Indigenous Achievement, NSW Ministry of Health Healthier Communities, Awards Australia Small Business Achiever and Western Sydney University Academic Achievement.

Winners will each receive a trophy and more than $2000 worth of prizes, made up of a $1500 Bartercard Trade Account, $500 cash from Awards Australia and a $300 voucher from Fly Pelican.

The overall 2020 NSW/ACT Young Achiever of the Year returns home with an additional $2000 for their Bartercard Trade Account and a further $500 cash from Awards Australia, along with magnificent state silverware.

Mr Fordham is also eligible to capture the People's Choice Award, which celebrates and raises awareness of the finalists' achievements.

To vote for him, so he can win a concert and movie tickets pack valued at $500, go to https://awardsaustralia.app.do/nswyaa20

The poll closes at midnight on Monday, March 16.

Mr Fordham's entry form stated he was determined to work hard to achieve his goals.

A proud Kamilaroi man, he co-founded Blackrock Industries with an aim of sustaining a large focus on indigenous employment and providing opportunities to inmates to be rehabilitated back into society.

He's a member of the Muswellbrook Aboriginal Land Council, advisory committee for Muswellbrook PCYC and Upper Hunter Aboriginal Land Council board.

He was an advisor for federal minister Mathew Canavan for the 2030 Resources Taskforce and has worked with the state government on the IPP policy, too.

Fellow Muswellbrook resident Yasmin Jimmieson was nominated for the First National Real Estate Leadership Award.

EBA awards 2019

Fri, 15 Nov 2019 08:42:29 GMT

Trade and Investment 2019

Thu, 07 Nov 2019 08:58:37 GMT

Kamilaroi entrepreneur steve fordham doesn’t look for the best employees he creates them.

Mon, 28 Oct 2019 08:05:57 GMT

“They say my people came from the dream time; but this feels like my dream time." - Steve Fordham co-founder Blackrock Industries.

28 -year-old Kamilaroi man Steve Fordham is the co-founder of Blackrock Industries, a multimillion dollar Indigenous owned and Indigenous operated business shortlisted for the 2019 EBA Awards.

At the age of 13, Steve Fordham was told he was about to die due to a benign polyp found in the middle of his brain

In a yarn with NITV radio, he confided that this scary discovery in his brain is what sparked a dramatic change on his outlook on life driving him to fully embrace life and never let anything hold him back.

“I was dyslexic throughout high school, I taught myself how to read but when I was diagnosed with a polyp in my brain, with a short time to live, I became more focused on life than school,” Steve Fordham said.

The polyp in his brain eventually dissipated but his mindset was already altered and re-wired for greater achievements.

"The only way we are going to fix the system is going out there and doing things ourselves"

He did an apprenticeship, worked for several years as a boilermaker; ventured in pet breeding and lawn mowing before starting his biggest and most successful enterprise.

In 2016 Steve Fordham launched Blackrock Industries with business partner Glen Finnan with whom he shares values and vision.

“Our goal was to build not only a viable business but also a company that gives back and helps people." They started the business with just $20,000 between them, an old tipper truck and 2 employees.

The company started with a single $1000 contract at Mt Pleasant but they would very quickly diversify in earthworks, mine rehabilitation, demolition, fencing, construction, cleaning and labour-hire services.

Three years down the road, Blackrock Industries boasts a multimillion-dollar turnover and employs more than 100 people.

Steve Fordham says his company aims to grow and expand but what it does along the way supporting the local socioeconomic fabric and closing the gap is as important.

"We know how it feels to be a minority"

With 70 percent of Blackrock’s s employees being Indigenous Australians and 30 per cent consisting of women and inmates from the local jail, Steve’s business is also helping to close the gap for minorities in the workforce. “We know how it feels to be a minority,” Steve said.

He is particularly proud of the very successful prisoner rehabilitation program for inmates of St Heliers Correctional Centre.

“One thing that is really important is kicking off this inmate employment program in which we work with inmates, offer them employment and help with their rehabilitation. This gives them a second chance. So far, only 1 out of the 39 people who have gone through this program has fallen back into the prison system.”

Steve Fordham observes that, per capita, Australian Indigenous over-representation in the prison system is one of the worst situations in the world making Black incarceration in the United States pale in comparison.

“The prisoner recruitment program, though very successful, does not receive funding from any government whether state or federal.”

Steve believes it is through this type of initiative hat the disastrous Indigenous incarceration as well as the chronic Indigenous under or unemployment can be mitigated.

Through Blackrock's program former inmates have turned their lives around and have successfully reintegrated the community.

“You can’t find the best employees, you create them. The only way we are going to fix the system is going out there and doing things ourselves.”